Le Monde has uncovered that the whereabouts of top politicians like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron can easily be traced on the Strava accounts of their bodyguards. This incident shows how personal tech devices can compromise privacy and security.
Strava is a popular fitness tracking app which allows users to share their workouts with others. The app logs user location data, which can be accessed publicly if not set to private. Using Strava, Le Monde identified the movements of agents tasked with protecting American, French and Russian leaders – with some agents even using their real names on the app.
In one case, Biden’s hotel location in San Francisco was traceable through a jogging route taken by an agent ahead of a high stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
What-to-do’s
Make sure to check off all actions, this will have a positive effect on your Behavioural Risk Score.
Lessons learned
This incident shows that apps tracking your location can expose sensitive information, even unintentionally. For everyday users, it’s a reminder to carefully manage privacy settings on all apps to protect personal details from becoming publicly accessible.
